iPad teleprompter

[Dean Sensui]

For anyone looking for a compact, relatively lightweight and effective teleprompter solution, you really need to check out the ProPrompter.

I just saw it yesterday at NAB and was impressed by the overall design and quality.

It provides a screen that's easy to read at normal distances of about 7 feet or so, assuming you have normal eyesight and aren't legally blind :-) Because it doesn't require any heavy connecting cables or external power, it's an ideal solution aboard Steadicam-type rigs or jibs.

You can remotely control the scrolling text with an iPhone or iPod Touch.

If you're looking for a excuse to buy an iPad, this is as good as any!

The ProPrompter Portable Teleprompter. Affordable Mobile Teleprompters | Bodelin Technologies

[Dean Sensui]

BTW, this is not like their previous product where the iPod Touch was to one side of the lens. This is a true teleprompter solution with a split mirror which allows the talent to make direct eye contact with the lens.

Anyone who has to do on-camera work in the field really needs to take a good look at this.

[Lloyd Ubshura]

Has anybody tried this yet?

[Charles Papert]

PrompterPeople is doing a version of this too now.

I spoke to both companies at NAB about doing a version of this that mounted off 15mm rods rather than requiring the whole riser plate assembly. Neither of them really "got it". It seems to me to be a no-brainer as it would require very little assembly and be quick to switch shooting modes that way. As soon as that emerges on the market I'll buy one.

[Steve Kalle]

With either version, how do you get the text to the iphone and how do you easily update the text? I have never been on a shoot where they didn't change the text; so, it seems that using a laptop is still the easier solution for tripod work.

I wish someone would sell just the mirror, hood and camera bracket so I can use a Marshall or Manhattan LCD.

[Brandon Barnard]

My company purchased the prompter people one and it works really well. I typically shoot between 5-8 ft away from my subject and it seems to do the job just fine. I cannot figure out how to get the ipod/ipad app to work correctly though. Seems like they disconnect from eachother whenever they feel like it and it can be a real pain. After purchasing the app I still havent used it successfully. Oh well, the prompter works though.

Here is some of the footage.
YouTube - The Walk Through - Dynamic Page Solutions

[Daniel Epstein]

I was on a shoot a couple of weekends ago where we used the Ipad Prompter set up for two days. Sid Levin of Boston had the rig with his Canon 5D and we felt like pioneers. Sid concluded that it was better to have 2 Ipads for a couple of reasons. The editing of the script was barely adequate on the Iphone 4. We also had a fair amount of communications problems between devices and it was hard for the operator to know where the script was showing up on the screen without seeing the Ipad so line of site was useful. Overall we made it through the shoot but not painlessly. If the script was preloaded and didn't need corrections it was pretty good but not quite as good as a real prompter set up.

[Lloyd Ubshura]

Thanks for that post, Daniel.

Was the problem mainly the iPhone and iPad not playing well together, or is the text a different size on the iPhone which caused problems displaying the same thing on the iPad?

[Daniel Epstein]

Lloyd,
There were a few problems. The more I think about it the more I can remember. The Bluetooth connection would get lost when script changes were being made requiring some reconnecting which caused at least one major delay. The Ipad mount may have been covering up the Bluetooth reception which meant for the connection to work better the Ipad wasn't always centered on the mirror. The set up was basically a little finicky, The text marker or lack there of on the iphone meant the operator of the Iphone didn't know what the display on the Ipad was showing exactly. The talent we were using were unprofessional so they couldn't always tell us what was wrong. Some of this may be operator error but it wasn't my job so I just had to watch and kibitz when something stumped us.

[Giroud Francois]

using a small laptop is more efficient, since you can also run other application (even video capture, or presentations).
I use a wireless usb to vga adapter so the laptop can stay on a table and you can use any cheap LCD monitor of any size as prompter.
You can also use 2 small laptop and control one with the second, or a small laptop and a ipod touch as remote control. (vnc)

[Steve Kalle]

Giroud,

How well does the wireless USB to VGA work? Are there ever any disconnections?

Thanks

[Dean Sensui]

Were the software problems with the ProPrompter software for the ProPrompter HDi , or the Flip-Q software for the Ultralite iPad Teleprompter from PrompterPeople?

[Brandon Barnard]

I am running into issues with the app I downloaded from proprompter. It seems that the itouch does not like staying connected to the ipad and vice versa. I called proprompter and they said for me to make sure that if I am using wifi to make sure my blue tooth is deactivated. I am gonna try on monday.

[Lloyd Ubshura]

Brandon, how did it work out?

[Brandon Barnard]

I actually have not had a chance to test it out again. I have been stuck on some other projects that don't require the prompter. I will let you know next time I get a chance to use it.